The checkered flag on our fundraising road trip came down at the renowned Troubadour in LA where we spoke to owner Christine Karayan.
If you are interested in music at all, it is likely that you will have heard of the Troubadour. Doug Weston opened the venue in 1957, initially as a coffee house on La Cienega Boulevard. It was only open a short time before it moved to its current location on Santa Monica Boulevard where it has remained, becoming a permanent fixture on the LA music scene.
Throughout the sixties, the venue played host to some of the biggest names in music including Bob Dylan, Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor. The big names kept coming through the seventies with Elton John famously making his US debut there and Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Billy Joel, John Lennon, a young Tom Waits, and Leonard Cohen all gracing the stage. As the music scene began to evolve in the eighties, the Troubadour evolved along with it, hosting Metallica and famously being the venue where Guns N’ Roses played the show that got them signed for Geffen Records. We could go on listing names but instead, we will just say that the Troubadour is a venue that has remained at the forefront of the LA live scene right up to the current day.
As part of our cross-country fundraising trip for Musicians On Call and National Independent Venue Foundation, we were able to catch up with Christine when we stopped in Los Angeles. During the interview, we talked about the importance of independently owned venues, the history of the venue, and some of Christine’s favorite memories.
The Troubadour is an iconic live music venue and we couldn’t have wished for a better place to finish up our journey across the US. We are extremely grateful to Christine and her team for taking time out of their days to make this interview happen.
You can see our interview with Christine here, and when you’re finished watching, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to catch future content:
To read more about our cross-country fundraising trip for the National Independent Venue Foundation and Musicians On Call, click here. All donations go directly to your chosen organization. To donate to NIVF, click here. To donate to Musicians On Call, click here.
